What’s going on guys?
Sean Nalewanyj, SeaNal.com.
BodyTransformationTruth.com.
And I figured this was an appropriate video for the time of year, especially with the
holiday is just finishing up.
And what I wanted to quickly talk about here is the subject of, how to return to the gym
after a training layoff?
And by training layoff, for this video, I consider that to be anywhere from around maybe
two weeks up to, maybe, five or six weeks off.
For anyone who trains just part of a regular ongoing lifestyle, layoffs are pretty much
inevitable and they happen to almost everyone from time to time.
So, maybe, you were sick or you had an injury to deal with or maybe some other area of life
got in the way or maybe you just lost motivation in general and you needed some time to recharge.
But in any case, it happens, it’s normal.
So, the first point I would make is to not stress out about it if you are.
What’s done is done and just recognize that fitness is a lifelong game and that it’s
what you do in the bigger overall picture that matters.
Short-term layoffs are no big deal in the long run.
In recognizing that, it’s going to help you avoid the main mistake that most trainees
make when coming back to the gym after a break, and that is trying to immediately pick up
where they left off and not giving themselves enough time to recalibrate and to properly
build back up to where they were before.
You know, I get that it can feel kind of depressing having to drop the weights back down after
you had put in the work to build up to a certain level.
But there’s no immediate rush here.
And it’s critical that you leave your ego at the door.
And that you accept the things probably have regressed a bit.
And that you will need to temporarily reduce the amount of weight you’re lifting.
Now, exactly how much strength or how much muscle you lost is going to depend on a lot
of different things.
Now, it’s going to depend on how long your layoff was of course, how your diet was during
that time, your sleep and just what your overall lifestyle was like in general.
So, if you were away for only two weeks because you needed to focus on school or work and
your diet was reasonably on point, then in that case you probably didn’t lose any real
muscle at all during that time.
And you might only experience a very small decrease in strength.
On the other hand, if you were gone for say five weeks, and your diet was a mess and you
weren’t sleeping well, then obviously the effects are going to be more significant.
So, take into account, the length of your layoff, what your diet was like, and how you
feel physically and mentally.
And then treat your first session back for each body part as a test work out.
And experiment on your first few sets to see what kind of weights you can actually handle
in proper form.
You’ll pretty much just have to go by feel on this because there’s no way to know exactly
how much strength you lost, since there are a lot of different factors that come into
play.
So, if in doubt, just go lighter.
And if it turns out that the way you selected was a bit too light then you can just aim
for higher reps anyway, it’s not a big deal.
But within a couple sets of each lift, you should have a pretty good idea of where your
strength is currently at.
And from there, you can just aim for progressive overload in the same way that you normally
would.
Don’t try to rush things by increasing your training intensity, or performing extra volume
or additional workouts, that’s not necessary and it’s only going to increase your chances
of burnout and possibly even injury.
So, you need to let go of your previous strength numbers.
Your current strength is your current strength.
And you just need to move forward and progress from your current level just like you normally
would.
Now, remember that strength itself is not just a product of actual muscular strength
but it’s also a learned skill as well.
And so, just because you have lost some strength, it doesn’t necessarily mean that that’s
a direct representation of how much muscle you lost.
Now, because strength goes down not only from losing actual muscle mass but also just from
neurological adaptations, where your body has become less efficient at those specific
movement pattern, since you haven’t been performing them consistently.
So, it’s totally normal to lose strength during the layoff even if your physique doesn’t
look that much different.
In terms, of actual muscle loss, if you were away for more than two weeks and your diet
wasn’t great then yes, you probably did lose some lean mass.
But significant muscle loss takes quite a bit longer than most people think.
And for shorter-term layoffs, you’re not going to lose that much even if your diet
and your sleep wasn’t on point.
And then, because of muscle memory whatever muscle you might have lost during your layoff,
it will come back significantly faster than it took to originally build it in the first
place.
I think anyone who has built muscle, then loss some of it and then returned to training
can confirm that.
I’ve experienced it firsthand several times.
But those initial adaptations that your body made to build the muscle in the first place,
they never truly go away.
They’re always stored in the body’s memory somehow.
And once that training stressor comes back, it immediately kicks into gear and that lost
muscle gets rebuilt quite a bit faster.
So, you can use that as motivation and reassurance if you are coming back from a layoff and you
did lose some size.
Also remember that what appears to be muscle loss during the layoff often isn’t even
the result of actual losses in dry muscle tissue itself.
That’s part of it.
But it’s also just being caused by the muscle cells storing less fluid and less glycogen
from the inactivity.
So, your physique will usually look like it’s sort of flattened out and deflated a bit if
you haven’t trained for around two weeks.
But you’ll find that, very quickly, once you get back into training, that visual fullness
in the mirror does come back.
Not to mention that part of it is probably just psychological as well.
So, I wouldn’t discount that either.
But in any case there’s nothing fancy that you need to do here when it comes to returning
to the gym after a layoff.
Just keep yourself grounded and recognize that layoffs are a normal part of training.
Start off lighter during your first few sessions to get a feel for what weights you can handle.
Apply progressive overload from there just like you normally would without changing your
regular training style.
Gradually build back up and recognize that whatever size and strength gains you have
lost will come back quite a bit faster than it took you to gain them in the first place.
So, there’s no need to rush things, just be patient and you’ll be back to where you
were before you know it and you can just progress further from there.
So, thanks for watching guys.
If you found this advice helpful and you want to get all the tools you need to gain muscle
and lose fat effectively, the workouts, the meal plan, the supplement guides, along with
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Thanks again for watching guys, and I will talk to you again soon.